A team of teenage girls from central Israel joined up with Israeli nonprofit Tze’ela (Citizen’s Team Action for Social Improvement) to incorporate its successful ‘improvement team model’ and bring smiles to a bat mitzvah girl and her family

A team of high school girls from central Israel has brought unexpected happiness and light into the life of a young girl whose family could not afford to celebrate her bat mitzvah, with the help of a unique ‘process improvement teams’ model introduced by the non-profit organization Tze’ela.

Tze’ela’s unusual implementation of a corporate improvement model in citizen team action has already enabled hundreds of teams around Israel to successfully handle problems in their communities. But this was perhaps one of the most moving achievements that it is proud of this year.

Renana Weiss is a counselor for Ma’agalim, an Israeli organization that operates in schools with underprivileged and at-risk youngsters, giving them tools to achieve a meaningful and responsible adult life. In all, 78 Ma’agalim teams have turned to Tze’ela’s method to realize social and environmental goals and also to empower the team members themselves. So Renana, too, decided to use this successful model to run a new project with a group of students from the Ulpanat Zvulun girls’ high school in Rosh Ha’ayin over the past school year.

At the team’s first meeting, they leaped into the first of ten simple and well defined steps that Tze’ela guides its teams through to reach a goal. First the team was to locate and define a problem to be handled. The girls proposed a number of different ideas and at the end decided to take a vote. It was agreed that the team would produce a special event for a bat mitzvah girl whose family did not have the means to hold a celebration for their daughter. Excited to move ahead to achieve that goal, the team began enthusiastically and systematically working through each step of the process that Tze’ela defines, next choosing a team leader and dividing responsibilities.

Renana made contact with Rosh Ha’ayin municipality’s welfare division, and with the help of a social worker, a suitable family was located. Due to hardships that this family was tackling, they had been unable to mark their daughter’s bat mitzvah, her twelfth birthday having already passed six months earlier. Renana met with the parents and the social worker to explain her team’s work with Tze’ela and to coordinate expectations.

With just a month and a half to set up the event, the team of high schoolers pushed ahead in ways that belied their age and experience. They split up into teams of two to four girls, each taking on a different aspect of organizing the event. Each team met a number of times with Shiran, the bat mitzvah girl, and her parents to hear what sort of celebration she dreamed of, and to go through details as they progressed. They spoke with professionals in the events industry to gather information and resources that they needed, carefully recording and calculating every aspect, down to the finest detail.

After gathering data, the team was able to begin taking action. The team responsible for the hall was able to book the location that Shiran preferred and negotiated a good price with the owners. Another team responsible for the catering found a company that promised to provide an elegant feast free of charge. Others sat together with Shiran to write her speech and even recorded it in a studio.

One creative group of girls created specially designed invitations to be sent to Shiran’s family and friends. Clothes and shoes were purchased for her for the big day, and a team of girls from the school’s theater track prepared a performance and activities for her friends at the event.

Girls from the school’s communications course organized a photo session for a bat mitzvah album before the event, and Shiran was taken out by a group of Ma’agalim girls who were the photographers. They also recorded the entire night on video and in photos.

And what event is complete without photo magnets for the guests to take home as a memento?

“As do many Tze’ela teams, the Ma’agalim students participating in this endeavor went through a rewarding process that required careful thinking and initiative, responsibility and meaningful action,” says Assaf Weiss, founder and CEO of Ma’agalim.

“Working their way along this exciting path, these teams learned more about their great capacity to give as individuals and as a team. They were given the gift of immense satisfaction seeing the process systematically through each and every step to completion, and were moved by the happiness that they were able to bring to one special bat mitzvah girl and her family,” adds Weiss.

About Tze’ela – Citizen’s Team Action for Social Improvement

The “process improvement teams” model is an established and well-known practice in the business world, providing large and smaller companies and agencies with an action tool to solve problems at various organizational levels. Tze’ela, an Israeli nonprofit organization, has taken the model a unique step further, adapting it for social improvement.

Since Tze’ela began introducing the process improvement teams model to the third sector four years ago, it has enabled hundreds of teams around Israel to successfully handle problems in their communities and environment. A nationwide network of volunteers, who are senior experts from the business and finance sector, provide training and support for community centers, student organizations, businesses, and even families in adopting the model for social action.

Now Tze’ela is entering a new phase of operations, as it plans to introduce its model in the US and UK.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)